Sledge Analysis
Sledge: Living Fantasy (or primitively Sledge and the Legend and then later 'SLEDGE') has gone through four phases. This page is dedicated to understanding the series in all of its states. Phase one: 'Legend' The original home of the strange character Sledge; Sledge and the Legend. This all came about one day at school, where I was simply bored and decided I would write some stuff. I first began thinking of pikminjake's character 'Egde'. Back then, I actually never noticed the misspelling so I was really thinking about 'Edge'. I'm not sure why, but I just randomly thought of my own character and I wanted an unusual, unexpected and (hopefully) meaningful name. I literally just thought of what rhymed with 'Edge' and 'Sledge' just came to mind. From working out his name, I started creating a backstory. Initially, I never planned to make this an episode. I simply wanted to create a character for a series who had backstory. It was once I had gotten home from school that day that I went through it and decided I would make it a pilot episode - even though it provides almost nothing to do with the actual content of the series. Coming up with Sledge's backstory wasn't hard. I just took elements of Pikmin, and elements of my own random ideas and mashed it together. It included absurd claims; Sledge was a human who was hit by a rock and then suddenly he's a Pikmin. It was honestly terrible, but I wanted it to be fun. That was just kind of my sense of humour at the time. I didn't have many friends at all so I was pretty lonely. I relied on the Internet for happiness so awkwardness is everywhere in my old videos. It didn't take long for me to start making ideas for the next episode, now I wanted to introduce more characters so I simply created an episode called 'Friends'. It's a boring concept, but the way I tackled it was entertaining - at least in my perspective. Keep in mind, this entire series was inspired by a single video by pikminjake; Chibi Twig & Pik-pik Episode 3. That video was just, every single interest I had ever had, jam-packed into one short ten minute video. I needed more, Jake wouldn't make more, so I made my own series based on it. Working up from it. Using the same world from it. Later, creating my own world. Of course, it didn't take long for me to try and create drama elements in my series. Once I started delving deeper into pikminjake's later Twig & Pik-pik episodes I really got a sense of how much better a series can be with some drama. This formed my love for the drama genre, and simply merging it with Pikmin was even better. It was never really shown to the public, but I did create an episode titled 'Cookie the Demonic Python' which showcased a clear inspiration from the myths behind Pokemon's beta Lavender Town (oof, cringey) and pikminjake's usage of "pipe cleaner demons" in two episodes. This video wasn't really what I wanted it to be, but it was indeed the last of the whole 'Legend' phase. It was my first attempt at creating something intentionally scary - and it definitely could've been if executed better - but I deleted my channel and I am unsure why. One thing I should note is that I used to delete my channel A LOT. And it was only for a name change usually. I wish I hadn't done this because I have lost a lot of old, nostalgic content. But the truth is that there isn't much I can do now but try to move on and just remember it. Phase two: anime inspiration This was in 2014 where I wanted to take a more anime-like approach to the series. Inspired by Bleach, I finished a full first episode using the same techniques in a typical anime. It had a full opening song with similar graphics. It was actually not too bad. Unfortunately I lost all of the second episode, but I definitely did film it and it took place in the dark - the lighting it used was a lamp. I can't recall the plot, but what I can say is that this phase as a whole ignored all of the principles in the Sledge and the Legend, even renamed some characters, and the states of certain characters were already in place before they were meant to be (for example, Sledge starts off already living with Hannah - later renamed to Cynthia in Living Fantasy). This was really only one episode long, and its plot sucked terribly. So there isn't much to say about it. As for its response, I can't even remember uploading this. I'm sure I did temporarily and then, erm, deleted my channel or something. Phase three: 'SLEDGE' Later in 2014-15, I went back again. I wanted to build from the drama, and use more cool visuals. I was heavily inspired by Gravity Falls, even the contemporary opening theme (originally composed back during this phase) was inspired by Gravity Falls' opening theme. I went for a more modern approach - or at least ominous, bold, and perhaps stranger than it already is - and simply just titled it after the protagonist. But in all caps. I started designing interesting art and concepts for the series to evolve around. These have all been found and photos have been taken for you to view now. This phase was as long as it took me to change it Living Fantasy, but until then it was this super strange series full of dimensions that Sledge would travel through with his friends. The antagonist; XeneX was created - a literal mirror of Sledge himself. While visually different, XeneX was something stopping Sledge from reaching his home and saving his kind - the human race. This story never got delved into but it does go to show that I really wanted to go crazy with the visual effects, as can be seen in both SLEDGE - Preview 1 and SLEDGE - Preview 2. XeneX is the that strange thing that Sledge sees in Preview 1. XeneX is also on the cover of the 'Legend Book'. This phase showed a much higher amount of effort but never turned into a series. Instead, it turned into the depressing phase of Living Fantasy. Phase four: 'Living Fantasy' The contemporary Sledge we all know and-... I don't know about love. The truth is, by the end of it all, Sledge's character turned out to be this extremely messed up schizophrenic who murdered all of those around him.He was simply surrounded by memories and visions of God. The idealistic finale to the series was a human being waking up in a hospital who gets asked to draw a cat. And well, he draws a cat. This is a reference to Louis Wain who began drawing stranger and more unrealistic cats as time went on and his mental condition worsened. To him, these crazy cat drawings were what they really looked like to him. And to Sledge, all the dead people and the apocalyptic world around him looked how they do in the show. The lack of more background characters and minimal understand of setting was entirely intentional. All Sledge could remember and believe were his friends. And while he always found Lenion to be a clown, he always figured there was something strange about him. What I have to say is that basically, this kind of acts like a sequel to Sledge and the Legend. I wanted Sledge and the Legend to have a bad ending, and so this was like the continuation of that but disguised as a rebuild. There is no perfect explanation for this phase, but it was a mix of happiness and pure depression. Some came from Evangelion, some came from past relationships, some came from where I was in life, and some came from my lack of productivity. And honestly, I was just in a new house and things were different. It hasn't felt right filming in this house at all. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. I just felt happier before. Category:Sledge (Franchise)